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Biglaw Investor

Unless the top 5 school is Yale, you would be a fool to turn down a full ride to a top 10 school. There is almost no difference between Columbia and Duke or Virginia in terms of job prospects, and that small difference is not worth $250k. I regret turning down a slightly lower ranked school for a t...

Biglaw Investor

I need to take some form of transport from Manhattan to JFK airport at 4:30 AM Sunday. I never used either of these services. Lyft offers coupons for $50 off first ride....Uber offers only $20 off. Which is better and why? Thanks I'd use Juno. They recruited all the Uber drives with 4.8+ ratings on...

Biglaw Investor

You could make less money, but I'm guessing you don't want to do that. You could also move to a no-income tax state - but then you've got that covered too! How about two Backdoor Roth IRA contributions for $11K? I didn't see that in your list. Won't save you taxes today but will save you taxes in th...

Biglaw Investor

Just curious here. How often do you wear out your daily office/work shoes? Mine are three years old today, and I keep thinking about replacing them. This past winter has seemed to accelerate the wear. I alternate pairs so I tend to wear brown on Monday, black on Tuesday and so on. The brown ones ar...

Biglaw Investor

I haven't read through your other thread but did you rate shop? SoFi is not the only game in town. I'd try a few of the other companies. Keep in mind that there's nothing stopping you from refinancing again in the future, so you could refinance today and then refinance again a year later (if the rat...

Biglaw Investor

Question: If you were to drive a borrowed (and insured) car from a friend or acquaintence - and were involved in a potential liability accident, which insurance would cover this first - your (non-owner) or the owner's? That's a great question. I'm not sure but I think the answer is that the non-own...

Biglaw Investor

I live in a city and don't own a car. About 30 days a year I rent a car. I rely on my Chase Reserve for collision insurance and purchase liability insurance from the car rental company for $13 / day. Instead of paying for the liability insurance each time, would it make more sense to take out a non...

Biglaw Investor

I don't think you get capital gains rates. Depends how the business was set up. Tell me how to set it up so you get capital gains rates. I'm definitely no tax expert (we have a whole department for that), but if you and your wife each own 50 shares of WhiteCoatInvestor Empire, Inc., a Delaware corp...

Biglaw Investor

Wow. You can get $500 for a computer that is six years old? I just traded my mid-2012 Macbook Air in for $211. It doesn't sound like you need the computer. I'd convert that into VTSAX pronto.

Biglaw Investor

And it sounds like the consensus is that the additional expense drag caused by the rollover of my spouse’s IRA is worth getting the opportunity to also do a backdoor for her. Yes, I think it's worth it too. One other idea to consider. Does your spouse have any self-employment income? Even as little...

Biglaw Investor

If you are a resident of NJ but work in NY, do not deduct your NY 529 contribution on NY state tax. Reason is this- any amount you deduct from NY tax will increase NJ tax by the same amount, so no benefit. Additionally, if you move your NY 529 plan to any other state, NY will recapture those deduct...

Biglaw Investor

If we were to refinance her loans. The plan would be to try to get a rate lower than the effective repaye rate of 3.77%, and pay that over a 5-10 year term. Some questions I have with this is how probable is it to get a rate of < 3.77 (Effective REPAYE rate), in the setting of a good credit score a...

Biglaw Investor

I am now 37, married, and I have two young girls (5 and 3). My wife and I are both still lawyers. However, I practice FT and she practices PT (3 days a week). She is considering stopping work to be there more for oru children as my oldest will start Kindergarten next year. I make approximately $450...

Biglaw Investor

https://www.nysaves.org/home/fe.html Here it is. Here's the preliminary report itself. https://www.tax.ny.gov/pdf/stats/stat_pit/pit/preliminary-report-tcja-2017.pdf The relevant portion is pasted below. N. 529 Plans Previous Federal Law: Federal 529 plans incentivize saving for college and other p...

Biglaw Investor

If I read your post correct, there should not be any taxes on earnings used for K-12 distributions. Is this right? I agree with Spirit Rider's read. The recapture would only apply to the NYS tax benefits you received upon contribution, which for you is none (and so nothing to recapture). The other ...

Biglaw Investor

Can you link or post the information about the 529 plan not allowing withdrawals for K-12 education?

Biglaw Investor

I can't think of anyone who wants apartments in the building they live in used as hotel rooms with the unvetted strangers coming and going at all times of the day and night without any respect for the rightful residents, inappropriate behavior, noise, bed bugs, etc. I'd love it if we could have Air...

Biglaw Investor

I'd look at refinancing with PenFed. I paid off most of my law school loans and refinanced the small remaining balance to get a better rate and PenFed offered much better rates than SoFi and the other often touted lenders . . . I think many of them reserve the best rates for physicians as opposed t...

Biglaw Investor

JDot wrote: ↑
Mon Jan 22, 2018 11:02 am
JL Collins is referenced a lot in the early retirement community. I find his stuff to be largely consistent with what I learned here at bogleheads.org. I'm interested to hear what others say.

JL Collins is the real deal. My experience is that his writing meshes very well with Boglehead philosophy.

Biglaw Investor

Definitely check out the Basilica di San Clemente al Laterano (as a previous poster mentioned). I lived in Rome for 5 months and it was one of my favorite places to visit repeatedly. It's essentially a church on top of a church on top of a home and each flight of stairs down reveals a new structure ...

Biglaw Investor

So what would you do? Go into student loan debt, or start at 0 with your retirement portfolio? On principle I'd really like to stay away from any loans. What would I do? I would leave the money in my IRA and harness the feelings of being uncomfortable with student loan debt to make sure I borrowed ...

Biglaw Investor

I don't have much to add that TropikThunder didn't already say but in addition to the Sallie Mae promissory note, this is usually spelled out in any student loan promissory note you'd sign. The rate will be tied to an index and will likely have rails that allow for how fast the rate can go up and th...

Biglaw Investor

Do you do your own taxes or use tax software? If you do your own taxes then what company do you use? If you use tax software then what do you use? I do my taxes by hand and use tax software (TurboTax). It makes me sharper and I learn a little each year. So far haven't had the need to use a CPA. Mos...

Biglaw Investor

-Should I wait to switch until I have a better understanding of different mutual funds, ETFs, etc. By asking the question, sounds like you have a good enough understanding to know that EJ isn't serving you, so I'd say you already have a good enough understanding to switch. It's not going to be scar...

Biglaw Investor

I did my first backdoor roth last week with my vanguard account. It went smoothly, but I see that the original IRA account is still around. For folks that do these yearly, do you open a new IRA account each year or just contribute the limit to the old account and do the conversion again? No, I cont...

Biglaw Investor

luminous wrote: ↑
Sat Dec 30, 2017 11:34 pm
We are renters, so this is pure invested assets, no home value or other capital assets.

Congratulations! Thanks for sharing. I always enjoy seeing someone announce this when it's pure liquid investments and not just value tied up in home equity.

Biglaw Investor

The loans are income based and the filing of income and taxes as single or married is a big piece that we haven’t quite tackled. We are considering working with an accountant to figure out our best course of action. That piece, along with the uncertainty around the likelihood of the policy remainin...

Biglaw Investor

Meaningful? No. The calculators show a savings of about $500 next year and a corresponding increase of about ~$500 in 2027. Live in NYC but was subject to AMT. The real change will be in how I restructure income going forward. Tax laws are public policy planning tools, so we will adjust accordingly ...

Biglaw Investor

Yes, we will donate less to charity. I live in NYC with no car and often have to pay people to haul charitable donations to charities. I can justify this since the tax break is well worth it. Now, I suspect we'll end up throwing more old things away or simply putting them outside for someone to pick...

Biglaw Investor

Here's a trick most people don't realize - you can negotiate scholarships! If UVA offers you money for example, go calling any peer schools you get into and see if they can match it. I'd pay attention to this OP. Nearly A Moose is dead on. Most people don't realize that you can negotiate scholarshi...

Biglaw Investor

I haven’t been able to do a detailed analysis, accounting for tax impacts, etc. That's going to be your first step. What repayment plan is she in (IBR or REPAYE or ... )? Now that you're married your payments are going to be based on your combined income unless you file your taxes MFS, which usuall...

Biglaw Investor

chicagoan23 wrote: ↑
Sat Dec 16, 2017 6:48 am
By my reading the NY Times has it wrong with respect to property tax payments

I agree with your reading.

Biglaw Investor

I just read this too and was coming to the forum to post the same thing. "Taxpayers may deduct only up to $10,000 total, which may include any combination of state and local taxes, including property taxes (also sales taxes). But don’t try to prepay your income taxes before year-end to circumvent th...

Biglaw Investor

Awesome. Congratulations!

Biglaw Investor

I tried to figure this out as well and eventually gave up. I opened up this card in June and best I can tell I actually have slightly more cashback than I expect based on my records of spending, so I'm just going to be happy with that and keep going. Until I read this thread I didn't realize the pro...

Biglaw Investor

I've been playing with Turbotax. The very short answer that seems to be the case for me, is that if you are subject to AMT solely because of SALT deductions, I'm not sure that prepaying 2018 taxes (assuming it can be done) helps much. FWIW, I am I have an AGI of ~$400,000 and deductible SALT taxes ...

Biglaw Investor

Can you clarify how effective tax rate works in the sample? If you haven't spent a lot of time at the White Coat Investor's site, he posts a tax report each year. His income is in the $1+ million and his effective federal tax rate was 21.7% last year (I actually think the second link would be more ...

Biglaw Investor

So to all the tablet owners out there do you use yours or is it sitting in a drawer someplace? What's more important is whether you'll use it! I have an iPad Pro 12 inch and an iPad Air 2. I love and use BOTH all the time but they're not for everyone. I'd try it out for awhile and return it if you ...

Biglaw Investor

I'm all Apple as well but still use Microsoft Office products (Word and Excel), mainly for work. The great thing about the Apple platform is the talented developers that write great programs. If you're looking for a writing app, there are some great ones (Scrivener for writing books, Ulysses for sho...

Biglaw Investor

If I have a $3000 qualified medical expense that I have paid out of pocket, can I just contribute $3000 to my HSA and then request a distribution right after to avoid paying the income tax on that money at the end of the year? My understanding is that as long as the HSA account was opened before th...

Biglaw Investor

Congratulations! Your secret is safe with us.

Biglaw Investor

Congratulations! Thanks for posting and sharing the news.

Biglaw Investor

They've called me 3-4 times. I've never answered and never spoken to anyone there. I don't find the calls/voicemails annoying.

Biglaw Investor

I'd be up for a meeting. I live in Cobble Hill.

Biglaw Investor

The main problem now is that they were sold to Navient, the Bear Stearns of student loan companies. Thanks for the update. Back when I refinanced and paid off my loans I went with Earnest. I had a great experience and enthusiastically recommended the company to friends. I'm surprised that they ende...

Biglaw Investor

Nice work! Thanks for sharing.

Biglaw Investor

The math seems to favor taking the forgiveness The interest doesn't actually compound. It only compounds if it capitalizes, which should only occurr if OP loses financial hardship status or other events happen. So it would just be 64000+64000*.067*17, which is about 137K. At a 15% federal (not unli...

Biglaw Investor

Another vote for option 4. I'd use the money in my efund and press the delete button on those student loans!

Biglaw Investor

You need a little more information to make the decision. As @chasingbutterflies said, I'd get started on the PSLF Certification form today to see how many "qualified payments" you've made. When you send the form to the Department of Education they will transfer all of your loans to FedLoan Servicing...

Biglaw Investor

The math seems to favor taking the forgiveness Can you elaborate on this? When I ran the numbers quickly, a $64,000 debt over 17 years at 6.7% interest results in a forgiven balance of $192,741.44. If that forgiven balance is taxed at a marginal tax rate of 33%, then you'll end up with a tax bill o...

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